A circuit arrangement for striking a discharge lamp, comprising: a drive apparatus, having an output adapted to provide a drive signal with a predeterminable frequency; an inverter, which is coupled to the output of the drive apparatus, and having an output adapted to provide a square-wave signal with a predeterminable duty factor; a load circuit, which is coupled to the output of the inverter and has at least one terminal for the discharge lamp, the load circuit comprising a lamp inductor, which is coupled in series between the output of the inverter and the at least one terminal for the discharge lamp; a first control loop with a first reference variable, a first manipulated variable and a first controlled variable, the first control loop having a first time constant; a second control loop with a second reference variable, an auxiliary manipulated variable and a second controlled variable, the second control loop having a second time constant; and a strike detection apparatus, which is adapted to detect striking of the discharge lamp and, after detection of the striking to switch over the first and the second control loops from the striking operation mode to the continuous operation mode. The auxiliary manipulated variable of the second control loop represents the first reference variable of the first control loop, the first time constant being smaller than the second time constant by at least a factor of 10, and the first manipulated variable represents the duty factor of the output signal of the inverter.